Can digital health technologies help us live to a healthy 100?

Why is closing the healthspan-lifespan gap important?

Living healthier, as recent data shows, is important for a higher quality of life. For example, healthier people find increased career satisfaction and make positive impacts on society. Helping populations live longer with healthier lives, therefore should be the healthcare industry’s number one priority. To achieve this, the outlook on healthcare must shift from being reactive to proactive.

Why the healthspan-lifespan gap is increasing despite healthcare technology development

Thanks to modern medicine and technological innovations, global life expectancy has more than doubled over the past 100 years. This is perhaps one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments. However, advancements have primarily focussed on reducing mortality rates and haven’t always been successful in preventing or delaying the onset of diseases. 

One of the main contributing factors to the widening healthspan-lifespan gap globally is the rise in chronic conditions, such as obesity, which are becoming the leading cause of preventable deaths. In the UK, treatment for obesity costs the NHS £6.5bn on average every year. As the population ages without maintaining good health, there is more long-term sickness in the world today than ever before. Enabling a fit and well population is key to decreasing pressures on healthcare systems and reducing government spending.  

Professor Sally Sheard, of the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Population Health, says, “What we have is not a National Health Service – we have a National Sickness Service”. Professor Sheard suggests restructuring NHS funding “from the traditional areas into things like prevention” to combat the rise in chronic conditions. 

The increase in global life expectancy has outpaced the increase in health-adjusted life expectancy, meaning people are living longer but not necessarily healthier. Unhealthy lifestyles pose an issue with a large number eating a poor diet, lacking in physical activity, smoking and consuming alcohol in excess, further increasing the threat of developing chronic diseases.  

The healthspan-lifespan gap is also strongly linked with socioeconomic differences. In the UK, people living in more deprived areas are expected to live 18-20 years fewer in good health compared to those in wealthier areas. Improving health equity is crucial for maximising individual well-being, quality of life and economic stability.  

Blue Zones – the answer to health longevity

Dan Buettner, an American journalist has documented the lifestyles of people living in five of the world’s “Blue Zones”. Blue Zones are regions where inhabitants have much lower rates of chronic disease and a smaller gap between their healthspan and lifespan. Some notable lifestyle characteristics of Blue Zone inhabitants are eating a well-balanced diet, incorporating plenty of movement, maintaining a strong social base and having a sense of purpose. The Singaporean neighbourhood, Kampung Admiralty, stands out as a recognised Blue Zone model, for its integration with government policy. Here, the government implements policies and incentives to promote healthy lifestyles, such as: 

• Improving access to excellent healthcare 

• Designing the area to encourage walking and cycling as the primary transportation method 

• Providing tax incentives for elder care  

• Discounting healthy food options 

• Providing social support in the community. 

Much of the infrastructure for healthier living was implemented between 2000-2020, therefore the effects on the populations’ health are yet to be documented. By following the lifestyle habits of those living in Blue Zones, populations are much more likely to prevent illness and optimise a long, healthy life. 

Digital health technologies – tools to encourage healthy lifestyle habits

Many of us now have the tools at our fingertips to help us lead healthier lives, inspired by the lifestyles of people in Blue Zones. Many products have functionalities to keep people moving including step counters, heart rate monitors, stand reminders and calorie and exercise targets – all designed to keep users accountable by being able to track data. Health apps encourage people to live a holistically healthy lifestyle by recording how much time has been spent on mindfulness, asleep, outside in daylight or away from screens.  

The irony is that these basic habits of living well are not new or complex, so why would we need to be prompted? Because unlike Blue Zone inhabitants, some do not live in areas with excellent weather, open green spaces and government-provided subsidies for gyms and healthy places to eat. The busyness of modern life leaves many stretched for time, often resulting in health becoming a low priority.  

How can digital health tools help to unlock our healthspan?

Global events often lead to the emergence of new technologies and systems into the public domain and COVID-19 was no exception to this pattern. With the pandemic now mostly in everyone’s memory archive, it is important to note how much it impacted medical systems and shifted attitudes towards care.  

Since 2020, the adoption of digital health tools has skyrocketed, however the cultural transition to adopting digital health technologies (DHTs) as part of patient care is still developing. The market saw a movement into Telehealth, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Remote Patient Monitoring, and more recently, promising insights have revealed how GenAI will positively impact the industry. Today, patients are more open to leveraging technologies to enhance their care both at home and in-clinic. 

The developments in modern health technologies and sophisticated personal products have unsurprisingly raised patients’ expectations. This has given way to a new breed of patients called “empowered patients” who are armed with technologies and information, making them experts in their own health or disease management. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) today can find themselves in more of a ‘guide’ role for their patients, as they wade through a sea of digital information instead of being the keyholders and source of truth. We’re seeing a change in the status quo, forming more equal partnerships where patients and their HCPs are working concurrently to find solutions, using in-clinic and remote monitoring data. 

Digital health tools empowering patients

Self-monitoring 

Globally, 7.2% of people own a smartwatch or health device. In the US, up to 59% of users track their steps, heart health, sleep, calories, stress and chronic health conditions using a personal device. Fitbit Labs, Whoop, Oura and Garmin track several biometrics and use Large Language Models (LLMs) to match data gathered during wear-time with a database to help generate health insights for each user.  

Apple’s health platform currently uses Traditional Machine Learning to generate insights and recommendations to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Apple is soon to release an upgrade to its Health app with an ‘AI Doctor’ feature. Back in 2019, Apple’s CEO Tim cook said, “I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?’ it will be about health”. Despite the company’s goal of contributing to greater access to healthcare, the new feature is rumoured to come with a fee, potentially jeopardising accessibility and health equity. 

Remote monitoring / symptom tracking 

By 2027, the projected population using Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) systems will be 115.5 million. Today, companies such as Biofourmis and Ada Health are harnessing the power of AI to elevate RPM systems by generating insights about a patient’s condition based on the data collected through continuous monitoring. This enables early intervention for conditions like heart failure or respiratory disorders which are some of the key contributors to the increasing healthspan-lifespan gap.  

Buoy Health, an AI-powered application, checks users’ symptoms in combination with the latest medical information, to offer possible causes and treatments for an illness or health problem.  

Flok Health, a UK-based startup, is an AI-powered screening and physiotherapy service. It is designed to quickly and easily address some of the most common chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders, accessed entirely through their app. 

All of these DHTs are designed to improve various aspects of patient care, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring and empower individuals to manage their health. They are classified as diagnostic tools and do not replace professional medical advice, which makes the regulatory approval process less complex. Apple’s AI doctor feature may be one of the first widely used digital platforms to provide medical advice, however the regulatory pathway chosen for this feature has not been made clear yet. This may affect its differentiation in the market as well as patient outcomes based on the system’s accuracy and reliability.

Drawbacks and problems of digital health technologies 

The adoption of wearable health data into healthcare systems has a long way to go. According to a 2022 Deloitte survey, the biggest challenges faced in this area are:  

• The need for wearable data to increase efficiency into HCP workflows  

• Scepticism of data accuracy due to the technology itself, or as a result of user error.  

In addition, there is a key question to consider – who pays for these digital health technologies to be sophistically integrated into healthcare systems and rolled out on a national scale? If this is to be funded by the taxpayer, usability needs to be high and the results need to be worthwhile. Patient populations may be requested to adopt more or new technologies into their lives, with the goal of improving outcomes. Significant efforts may be needed to change patient behaviours and attitudes to encourage a willingness to adopt new healthcare pathways. Similarly, any integrations must benefit HCPs by streamlining processes, enhancing the efficiency of systems and supporting their practice by providing accurate and reliable information.  

Digital health technology use – changing attitudes

Today, we can already see the positive impacts digital health tools are having on people’s lifestyles and attitudes, particularly in younger generations. If we look at the typical health monitoring and activities of DHT users today compared to the same age group 10 or 20 years ago, the results would be very different. In 2024, Strava saw a 59% increase in running club participation across 190 countries. It reported that people were using the activity to improve fitness as well as make friends and romantic relationships. For millennials specifically, health and fitness ranks in second place for spending priorities.

Studies have shown the positive effects digital health tools have had on preventative health habits, such as exercising for longer or taking more steps in a day. Young adults in particular are leading the way to healthier lives by prioritising their physical and mental health, swapping alcohol for super greens powders and becoming gut-health gurus. 

With constant developments in digital health technology and a shifting awareness on living healthier for longer, the next few years will be truly fascinating to watch how technology and healthcare become further intertwined and how this could impact our health.